Geode Capital Management LLC Has $70.86 Million Stock Holdings in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA)

Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Avista Co. (NYSE:AVA) by 1.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,828,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 27,328 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Avista were worth $70,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AVA. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in Avista by 4.0% in the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 10,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avista by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 6,696 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Avista by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,330 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $245,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Avista by 6.9% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,836 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legato Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Avista by 0.9% during the second quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC now owns 63,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,194,000 after buying an additional 593 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on AVA. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Avista in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Avista in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $40.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Avista presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.75.

Avista Trading Up 0.9 %

AVA stock opened at $36.19 on Friday. Avista Co. has a one year low of $31.91 and a one year high of $39.99. The stock has a market cap of $2.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $37.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

Avista (NYSE:AVA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $383.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $389.29 million. Avista had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 7.83%. Avista’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Avista Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Avista Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.25%. Avista’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 75.70%.

About Avista

Avista Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company. It operates in two segments, Avista Utilities and AEL&P. The Avista Utilities segment provides electric distribution and transmission, and natural gas distribution services in parts of eastern Washington and northern Idaho; and natural gas distribution services in parts of northeastern and southwestern Oregon, as well as generates electricity in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.